Types of websites & online communities

ITA U3O1-KK01 = types, purposes and functionality of websites that support information exchange within online communities

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Types of websites within online communities

The types of websites for this key knowledge is defined by VCAA as including:

• blogs
• chat rooms
• forums
• social networking
• wikis.

Types of online communities

• social
• work-based
• project/interest-based

Each serves to support collaboration, knowledge sharing and collective identity

Needs of online communities' members

Blogs

Blogs (web logs) are usually used by individual people to broadcast announcements to online communities.

Blogs often feature regular diary entries, commentary and news. They usually also include pictures and links to interesting places on the web.

While they are mainly one-way communication, most blogs have feedback facilities so readers can leave comments on blog posts. This interactivity distinguishes blogs from static websites.

Some blogs grow so large that they constitute an entire website (e.g. The Huffington Post or Gizmodo), while others are a component of a website, or are hosted on a blog provider such as blogger.com.

While most blogs are primarily text-based, some blogs sub-types focus on different media such as videos (video blogging - example), audio (podcasting - examples), photos (photoblog - example).

Blogging is immensely popular and there are literally hundreds of millions of active blogs online.

Technorati is a popular blog search engine.

Chat rooms

Chat rooms are online messaging services that let individuals or groups communicate in real time, unlike asynchronous forums where there is usually a delay between a post and a reply. The primary purpose of chat rooms is to share information on a particular topic with like-minded people. Its real-time nature makes it very useful for communities to interact quickly and make immediate plans or decisions.

They are often hosted by service providers like paltalk or via downloaded applications like Yahoo Messenger or IRC.

Many are run commercially for profit (e.g. partner-finding chatrooms).

Many have special interests or audiences (e.g. teens, music lovers, technogeeks, gays, religious, national).

Chat rooms can be international or local, large or very small.

To join a chat room, a user usually needs to register and choose a username and password. Users then choose a chat room they are interested in (usually there are many rooms/topics to choose from). Upon entering the room, there are usually many people already present and the user sees their posts. Other users are notified of the arrival of the new user. The user can then message the other participants by entering their message in a textbox.

Some providers let users create their own chat rooms.

Care needs to be taken in any chat room. The real identity or nature of fellow chatters is often not what you'd expect.

Online protocols (netiquette) is a vital aspect of the use of chat rooms.

Chat rooms are predominantly text-based but some offer audio and video features so users can see and hear each other.

Rooms are sometimes moderated by a person who either filters and approves posts (e.g. when addressed to a celebrity) or monitors the room for inappropriate behaviour (often necessary in rooms used by minors.)

There are several places that offer tips on staying safe when using online chat - e.g. Chat Danger.

Because chat is in real time, fast typing is often important to keep the flow of conversation going. To help speed typing, users are famous for using many acronyms and abbreviations as a shorthand. These later also became useful in SMS messaging.

Common shorthand expressions include:

• AFAIK - as far as I know
• AFK - away from keyboard
• ASL - what is your age, sex and location?
• LOL - laughing out loud
• ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing
• LMAO - laughing my a*** off
• FWIW - for what it's worth
• IIRC - if I remember correctly
• IM(H)O - in my (humble) opinion
• YMMV - your mileage might vary (i.e. you might not get the same results as I did)
• BBL - be back later
• BTW - by the way
• CTN - can't talk now
• BF/GF/BFF - boyfriend, girlfriend, best friends forever
• IDK - I don't know
• HTH - hope that/this helps
• J/K - just kidding
• MYOB - mind your own business
• OMG - O my god/gosh
• PHAT - pretty hot and tempting
• pls - please
• ppl - people
• POS - Parent over shoulder
• TBC - to be continued
• TMI - too much information
• ZZZ - sleeping
• CYA - see ya

Forums

Discussion forums (message boards) are asynchronous multi-user threaded message applications which let many users hold conversations in the form of posted messages. A thread is a continuous conversation of posts and replies on a specific topic.

Similar to mailing lists where posts are made by email.

The original internet (even before the web arrived) was dominated by the millions of posts to bulletin boards and usenet newsgroup forums. Usenet still survives, but other big forums now include google groups, yahoo groups, and there are thousands of special-interest forums like Open Transport Tycoon.

Forums are hierarchical - forums are usually divided into boards (each with a main topic category such as "Site suggestions" or "Automotive") which contain threads consisting of posts and replies.

All members of the forum can see and reply to any other member's post.

Because the posts are threaded, users can follow a post's replies in order. Threads can be expanded (to see subposts) or collapsed (to hide replies.)

Some threads start and end quickly if the issue is resolved or interest in it fades. Other threads can go for years and include thousands of posts.

Forums are excellent for online communities to ask and answer questions, make plans, discuss topics of interest or have fun. Because (like email) posts are not synchronous, users can craft their messages carefully and think about what they are saying. As a result, forum posts can be more detailed, accurate and thoughtful than chat posts.

Many forums allow the attachment of documents to posts, which can greatly help share information between community members.

Some forums require registration to enter; others require registration only if you want to post; some forums are completely open to all.

Like chat rooms, forums have online protocols (netiquette) that users are expected to learn and obey.

Some forums (especially those on inflammatory subjects) are moderated by people who approve each post.

Social networking

Social networking sites allow people to communicate with others and present information about themselves. Some are special-interest (e.g. green living, Indian people, genealogy, teenagers) while others (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) have no specific theme.

Social networking groups individuals into groups based on their features (e.g. sex, nationality, place of residence, age, interests). Such sites let people meet and share information.

Social sites often give users a profile page where they can provide information about themselves.

The biggest social networking sites (over 10 million users) include: Badoo, Bebo, BlackPlanet, Buzznet, Classmates.com, Cyworld, Facebook, Flixter, Flickr, Fotolog, Friends Reunited, Friendster, Geni.com, hi5, Habbo, Hyves, LinkedIn, last.fm, LiveJournal, Mixi, Multiply, MyHeritage, MyLife, MySpace, MyYearBook, Nasza-Klasa.pl, Netlog, Odnoklassniki, Orkut, Plaxo, Qzone, Renren, Skyrock, Sonico.com, StudiVZ, StumbleUpon, Tagged, Twitter, Vkontakte, Viadeo, WeeWorld, Windows Live Splaces, Xanga.

As with any online community site, care needs to be taken when giving out personal information or interacting with people. Care should also be taken when posting information to public sites since such information will last forever and may be embarrassing in the future.

Employers routinely look up job applicants' social networking profiles on sites like Facebook, and there have been several cases of people being fired because of unsavoury information added to their profiles.

Addiction to (or time-wasting on) social networking sites is an increasing cause of concern to families and employers.

Wikis

Wikis are online software tools that let a group of people contribute to the development of a document or knowledge base. The most famous wiki is wikipedia which has developed into an online encyclopaedia created by millions of contributors.

They allow online communities, large and small, to collaboratively build information resources and pool their talents and knowledge.

A wiki needs some control over edits to prevent accidental or deliberate damage to the aggregated information. Wikipedia, for example, lets anonymous edits but they may need to be approved by a moderator before they are enacted. Controversial topics may be locked so only registered user, or specific users can edit those topics.

Purposes of websites within online communities

• To provide information and news (inform)
• To promote an opinion (persuade)
• To teach (educate)
• To answer questions
• To entertain
• To allow individuals to collaborate on a shared task (e.g. solving a social problem)
• To organise people working on a shared task
• To let people express themselves and their opinions
• To gather information or resources on a given topic
• To let like-minded people meet and interact

Others?

Functionality of websites within online communities

blogs

• hierarchical editing privileges
• rich text editor
• spell checker
• allow users to post information
• allow readers to comment on posts
• conduct polls
• search through posts
• provide RSS syndication feeds
• post pictures, video, links
• restrict access to features through registration and passwords
• allow moderation of readers' comments
• offer templates with different page styles
• offer widgets to increase functionality (e.g. calendar)
• SEO (search engine optimisation)

chat rooms

• registration facilities
• moderation
• rich text editor
• ability to block/ban users
• spell checker
• encryption
• sending/receiving documents, files
• audio/video support
• saving and searching chat history

forums

• hierarchical editing privileges
• ability of users to set personal preferences and edit their 'sig' (signature) and avatar
• search facilities
• auto-notify post authors if replies are made
• attach documents
• insert pictures, links, emoticons
• RSS feeds
• expand/collapse threads
• ignore threads
• lock threads (preventing further posts)
• make threads 'sticky' so they always appear
• user ranking of posts
• polling/voting facilities
• edit HTML source of posts
• highlight new posts
• indicate who is online
• count posts and replies
• allow quoting of previous posts

social networking

• registration and secure login
• personal profile page
• moderation of posts
• ability to connect with other users (friends)
• ability to manage a friends list
• page template themes
• ability to customise profiles
• search for users or text
• provide email and instant messaging
• insert images, links
• provide chatrooms
• 'live feed' of users' activities, photos etc

wikis

• registration and password-protected login
• hierarchical editing privileges
• rich text editor
• communicate with other contributors
• edit HTML source code
• easily embed links, pictures, tables etc
• roll back unwanted changes
• lock topics to prevent further changes
• pre-made page templates
• ban users/IP addresses